During Anderson Cooper's sit-down with [artist id="3061469"]Lady Gaga[/artist] on CBS' "60 Minutes," the veteran anchor noted her refreshing candor, and in the segment the megastar demonstrated just how open she could be.

The "60 Minutes" cameras followed Gaga across the globe for a segment that aired Sunday night (February 13), and Mother Monster freely dished that while she no longer dabbles in cocaine, she does partake in some herbal refreshment when she opens her lyrics.

"I smoke a lot of pot when I write music. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it for '60 Minutes,' " Gaga said matter-of-factly, adding that she knocks back whiskey as well when she writes. The "Born This Way" singer, who maintained in the same interview that she had [article id="1657683"]"mastered the art of fame,"[/article] added that her upfront manner is central to her superstardom.

"What artists do wrong is they lie, and I don't lie. I'm not a liar," she said.

And as we all know, she's not shy either, letting the "60 Minutes" crew tag along with her on a walk on the Thames river in London that gets crashed by paparazzi (she admitted she never gets used to the overamped photogs), showing up nearly nude to a sit-down in Milan ("I just didn't want to wear clothes today," she explained. "I just wanted eyeliner and my McQueen boots") and describing her rocky years as a high-school misfit.

"I felt disenfranchised by my school and the people at the school who would make fun of me ... and make me not feel cool," she said. Her new nom de stage — and the elaborately creative persona that accompanies it — liberated her from her confidence issues.

"I was able to leave such a massive amount of insecurities behind me by giving me that name," she said. "You have the freedom to pull that superstar out of yourself that you were born to be."

As her fans can attest, she's got the superstar thing down; the segment showed her preaching self-empowering proclamations to crying, emotional fans in concert. She also batted away any notions that she doesn't helm her image personally, insisting she works studiously when it comes to creating her headline-making getups and chart-topping anthems.

"I'm a true academic when it comes to music and when it comes to my style," she maintained. "There's always some sort of a story or a concept that I'm telling."

During the interview she rocks out to a few seconds of "Born This Way," [article id="1657511"]tries to drop in on her old New York apartment[/article] and dishes about what she does and does not answer to in bed. Given the outrageousness of her antics and image, Cooper asked what the real Gaga is like. The pop sensation maintained there's no difference between who she is onstage and off.

"How much more real could I be?" she wondered, when recounting how photogs often ask for Gaga to be herself. "This is what I'm really like. This is the coffee I drink every day, this is the diamond I put in the cup when I get nervous," she added, suckling a fake diamond-like rock that she dropped in her cup — which is very likely a singular Gaga quirk.

What did you think of Lady Gaga's "60 Minutes" interview? Let us know in the comments!